George Santayana warned that those who refuse to heed history are doomed to repeat it…wise words and true. As Caesar was warned to “Beware the Ides”, so, too, are we being warned to heed the lessons of our past.

Some claim that Rome lasted for a thousand years, with the implied assumption that it was a free republic for the entire period of its existence. Nope. It’s fortunes, influence and borders waxed and waned. The Roman political system vacillated from republican to democracy to dictatorship and back again, repeatedly, during that timeframe. For over a thousand years, however, it had no major competitors. iow, no other empire or kingdom possessed the power and might to militarily or economically obliterate it during it’s more vulnerable phases.

This article is comparison between America and another great empire faced with rot in high office and a decline of state—Rome. The writer, JR Nyquist, artfully points out it’s not the big events that sink an empire but many seemingly little ones. You could call what is happening to the U.S. “death by a thousand cuts.” Except in this story, people are not really aware how deep the cuts are and exactly who is doing the cutting. I loved this piece, and I hope you do as well.

There is a letter by Marcus Tullius Cicero, dated 18 December 50 B.C. This letter was written to his friend Atticus on the eve of the Roman Civil War. He wrote as follows: “The political situation alarms me deeply, and so far I have found scarcely anybody who is not for giving Caesar what he demands rather than fighting it out.” To explain the situation in brief, G. Julius Caesar had demanded the right to circumvent the Roman constitution, to break laws with impunity, to extend his command over a large army by using that army to threaten the Senate of Rome. “And why should we start standing up to him now?” asked Cicero. The next day he wrote to Atticus: “We should have stood up to him [Caesar] when he was weak, and that would have been easy. Now we have to deal with eleven legions….” Though he hated the idea of civil war, the only course, said Cicero, was to follow “the honest men or whoever may be called such, even if they plunge.”

And who were these “honest men”? “I don’t know of any,” wrote Cicero in the same letter. “There are honest individuals, but [there are no honest groups].” Then he asked rhetorically if the Senate was honest, or the tax farmers, or the capitalists. None were frightened of living under an autocracy, he lamented. The capitalists, especially, “never have objected to that, so long as they were left in peace.” But civil war occurred nonetheless, because people are not free to be dishonest forever. They must admit to certain responsibilities, and oppose the advance of evil. The previous inclination to look away, to do nothing, to shrug off responsibility, proves in the end to be no more than a delaying tactic. They attempted to put off calamity, Cicero suggested, and made it all the more calamitous.

That is all.

Why did the Roman Senate suddenly stand up to Caesar? What triggered their resistance? As with all free people, they began with policies of procrastination and appeasement. They hoped that the problem (i.e., Caesar) would go away. In the end, however, they discovered their mistake. Everyone still hoped for peace, though none believed it was possible. Everyone wanted to avoid war, but nobody saw a way out. Pompey stood before the Senate and gave voice to what everyone thought. “If we give Caesar the consulship, it will mean the subversion of the constitution.” In other words, it would mean the end of Rome, the end of the republic, the destruction of their country.

In a fitting preface to John Dickinson’s Death of a Republic, George L. Haskins wrote, “that the history of Rome is … the history of the world, that, as all roads lead to Rome, so all history ends or begins with Rome.” Why do free people fall into complacency? Why are threats ignored until the eleventh hour?
“Surely,” wrote Cicero at the end of Caesar’s dictatorship, “our present sufferings are all too well deserved. For had we not allowed outrages to go unpunished on all sides, it would never have been possible for a single individual to seize tyrannical power.” Caesar’s cause was not right, but evil, Cicero explained. “Mere confiscations of the property of individual citizens were far from enough to satisfy him. Whole provinces and countries succumbed to his onslaught, in one comprehensive universal catastrophe…” As for the city of Rome, Cicero lamented, “nothing is left — only the lifeless walls of houses. And even they look afraid that some further terrifying attack may be imminent. The real Rome is gone forever.”

Republics are slow to defend themselves against enemies that advance, like Caesar, under camouflage. But make no mistake, republics always defend. Groups and categories of men may not be honest or brave, but when they are finally confronted with the truth — as individuals — they see no other course. They stand up and fight. We should not be surprised, therefore, that Caesar was struck down in the Senate and killed by thrusting daggers.

“The Death of Julius Caesar,” by Vincenzo Camuccini, 1798

It is all too true, of course. “We should have stood up to him when he was weak,” Cicero lamented. The problem with republican government is its tardiness; or rather, tardiness in the face of danger. As Machiavelli wrote,

The institutions normally used by republics are slow in functioning. No assembly or magistrate can do everything alone. In many cases, they have to consult with one another, and to reconcile their diverse views takes time. Where there is a question of remedying a situation that will not brook delay, such a procedure is dangerous.

Machiavelli concluded, therefore, “that republics in imminent danger, having no recourse to dictatorship … will always be ruined when some grave misfortune befalls them.” This is the weakness of republican government. Here is the ground on which it dies. An obvious threat, like 9/11 or Pearl Harbor is not the greatest danger. It is the subtle, camouflaged threat, that creeps up from behind. It is this camouflage that gives reluctant men a way out. “We need not fight. We need not make a fuss. There is nothing to fear.”

When this is the prevailing view, people who understand a given threat may ask: “What is to be done?”

As long as we are isolated individuals, there is nothing to do. The individual may be honest with himself, but groups are not honest. What prevails overall is an optimistic dismissal. “The threat isn’t real.” This is how Hitler got so far. This is how Communism took over so many countries, and continues today under camouflage. There is nothing the individual can do that will sway the crowd. And as we are a republic, our political system operates according to the psychology of a crowd. The majority are caught up in the fads and media trends of the moment. Cynical and empty publicity characterizes much of our public discourse.
Are the Russians and Chinese arming themselves against us? Is Venezuela becoming a military bulwark for Communism in Latin America? Is Mexico being destabilized by the Russian mafia (via the Mexican mafia)? Has Canada been infiltrated by Chinese intelligence allied with Chinese organized crime? Are socialist revolutionaries inside the U.S. government subverting the nation’s nuclear deterrent, foreign policy, and border security?

The crowd says “no” because that is what they want to believe. But one day the country will awaken. Then, and only then, Americans will stop going along as if nothing serious hangs over them. Will it be too late? Perhaps it will be too late to save the republic. But it will not be too late to save the country.

No one but a parent can truly understand the depth of your loss; who who remain unscathed can only pay tribute to the bravery of your sons and the courage of your suffering. But NO one should remain ignorant of your sacrifice. May God Bless you all.

The hour of 1700 24 Aug eastern daylight time has now come and gone, and all afternoon I watched the clock as I worked. It has now been five years since I stood in an open doorway at an air cargo hanger for US Airways at Atlanta Hartsfield Airport and watched as an Escort Sergeant and the Casualty Assistance Officer uncrated Mike’s Casket and drape the American Flag over him, neatly cornering it out and not accepting anything less than perfection. I stood there, large tears dripping down my cheeks onto my coat, tie and dress shirt, trying to give a proper salute to Mike, an untrained civilian whose hand trembled against my forehead, my chest aching pain of a grieving heart. An office full of workers whose day was like any other suddenly realized what was happening and froze and stared. They were to say the least, aghast having been caught by surprise at the moment. As the Escort Sergeant and CAO satisfied themselves Mike’s Flag was properly draped, they turned and looked at me, nodding with approval and I released my salute as they slid his Flag Draped Casket into the waiting hearse. I walked outside needing fresh air, but more importantly to call my wife Retta, as I had come alone. As she answered the phone I simply said “Our Boy is Home” and then the tears became a sob in unison as she sobbed from the other end. After a few moments I got in the hearse and rode the 30 plus miles to the funeral home, where Mike’s mom and other dad were waiting and he would stay overnight, unannounced so the community could be given notice the next day and have their desired opportunity to welcome Mike home. It was the best we could do with just a two hour call block he was coming in.

Mike’s Flag Draped Casket was just inches over my shoulder as we traveled many of the same roads he and I traveled over the years as I went back and forth with him on weekend, holiday and summer visitation trips between his mom’s home and my home. Many moments of remembering, whether singing a goofy song, yelling up at our favorite local traffic copter announcer (Scott Slade who Mike called Scott Wade as a little boy), eating at a Burger King with a playground, visiting a game ranch where Mike once had to rescue his younger brother Wes from a somewhat aggressive small deer. Every mile was a memory, and yet another moment for a broken heart to ache even more. It was a long ride but not nearly long enough, and over too soon and then, it was time to share him with others…. It was my Last Ride to Take My Boy Home. It is burned in my memory as vividly as scenes on film captured on DVD. As I go monthly or more often to tend Mike’s grave and visit him I travel by Hartsfield just eyeball distance from that Air Cargo Hanger on a monthly basis, sometimes more often, as well as many of the same highways we traveled that moment in time five years ago. I never fail to look over going and coming and feel that moment and remember my first glimpse of my Boy’s Flag Draped Casket, and I never want to forget the pain, for to hurt deep you had to love deep.

People ask me about Mike, how I am doing, and sometimes how I cope and I like that, for it means they Remember Him. I tell them I will die with a broken heart, but I choose to live with as much joy as possible, for God gives us life, and my Boy would want me to go on and live as full and happy a life as possible. I owe it to God and my Boy and it is the least I can. And in a selfish way, it is my sticking it back to those who killed Mike, my way of taunting them and saying you hurt us bad but you failed to take us all out and we will now stand up and we will not cower, we will not retreat, we will not blame in bitterness and WE WILL REMEMBER MIKE WITH HONOR. I openly say that those who killed Mike and would rob our country of freedom would have been better off to have left him alone, for they awoke an entire family, community and many new friends around the world. Those who killed Mike failed, and he won. Mike and our family are not the only ones they failed with, for the Families of the Fallen in the War on Terror, even though knocked to their knees, as a whole, rose again to stand as tall as they might, joined by millions of supporters at home and hundreds of thousands of fellow soldiers and their families who stayed engaged, some many deployments over, even knowing what could happen.

Cut and Run was not a strategy, option or path to victory. Duty, Honor, Country, and might I now add Sacrifice, was! When others called to leave, those who really counted said no, I will go, some again and again, and many more gave their lives, while others had their lives altered in many ways. One in particular is SFC Mark Allen who served with Mike. Upon his redeployment from Iraq in 2006, he had a safe full time job at the State level with the Georgia Army National Guard. In mid 2008, when he got wind that a lot of his Iraq battle buddies, now with Bravo 2/121 of the 48th GAARNG were likely going to get orders in the coming year to deploy to Afghanistan, he demanded his way out of the safe job and into Bravo 2/121. I shall never forget on the 3rd anniversary gathering at Mike’s grave, Mark and his wife came as they had the previous two years, and brought their one month old daughter and stood in the hot evening sun. He told me of his plans and hope to have orders to join Bravo 2/121 in a month or so. I was the unit’s Family Readiness Chairperson and a month later at the Armory, which is near my work, in he pops and says its official “I’m here.” Mark and his wife weren’t with us at the fourth anniversary gathering, and a few days before I visited them at Bethesda where Mark lay in a coma from a serious gunshot wound and brain injury sustained in a fierce firefight where his squad encountered overwhelming enemy forces and fire on July 8, 2009, just a month into his Afghan deployment. I looked at Mark’s wife as she cooed to him and stroked his arm telling him I was there. I choked back tears and mumbled “You all have to be the bravest folks I know because you saw up close and personal what happened to us, yet you went again.” Mark Allen has only recently began to make the first simple steps of cognitive recognition, but they are steps that the odds didn’t support were possible. And you know what, if he could get out of the bed, he would go again.

And there are so many more like the Allens. There are more of the Allens than the “others” who want to slurp at the fountain of freedom but who don’t want to do any lifting, much less the heavy lifting, and when it gets tough are the first to call for cut and run. It is because of those like the Allens that we will endure, we will prevail and we will live free.

And it is because of those like the Allens, the Chuck Z, Greyhawks, Blackfive, Thunderrun, They have Names, Patti Patton-Bader and her entire SA organization too many to mention, as well as so many others that space and time can not measure, that my broken heart can rest gently on their support and endure with assurance that what Mike did mattered and what he gave will be Remembered with Honor. And I have to think thus it is so for the many like me. What a blessing to live among such great people in such a great country.

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As we are daily told that the war in Iraq is over, and that the last combat troops have left, I am wondering just what we tell the families of the men who continue to die over there. I get DOD reports daily, and almost never a day goes by without a KIA report. Today’s:

The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

They died Aug. 22 at Paktika, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked their unit with small arms and rocket propelled grenade fire.

Killed were:

Sgt. Steven J. Deluzio, 25, of South Glastonbury, Conn.

Spc. Tristan H. Southworth, 21, of West Danville, Vt.

They were assigned to the 172nd Infantry, 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Jericho

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

It was only a matter of time, folks. Construction worker Andy Sullivan made a pledge on August 6 to refrain from working on any mosque being built in close proximity to Ground Zero premises, and workers and suppliers are signing it!

Go to www.bluecollar.com to view the pledge and other information…tell your friends…and pass it on!

We will NOT forget!

Millions of Americans–over 70%, excluding the pResident, Mayor Bloomberg and others–are outraged at the idea of a mosque being built on such hallowed ground. Please join everyone in protesting this blasphemy by investigating funding sources and attending demonstrations against this attempt to further humiliate Americans with what is tantamount to a shrine to jihad. Demonstrations are planned for BOTH August 22 and September 11th. Visit Pamela Geller’s www.atlasshrugs.com for news and updates! Or contact TheDameTruth for details!

In Mourning for America

Uh…call me crazy, but…isn’t THIS considered treason? ? Why aren’t all of these people being arrested, held and tried for exposing secrets that endanger our national security and our troops??

Um…didn’t they execute the Rosenbergs for a whole lot LESS than this??????

I received this from the American Forces Press Service <afps@subscriptions.dod.mil> with regard to the Wikileaks folks, who remain at large, or should I say living large, while our nation and our troops teeter on the edge, victims of literate Jihadists everywhere who can read or translate English.

Ah…AGAIN, folks…

Uh…call me crazy, but…isn’t THIS considered treason? ? Why aren’t all of these people being arrested, held and tried for exposing secrets that endanger our national security and our troops??

Um…didn’t they execute the Rosenbergs for a whole lot LESS than this??????

And, EVEN MORE IMPORTANTLY…WHY ARE TEN BRAVE, HONORABLE SERVICE MEN BEING HELD IN FT. LEAVENWORTH FOR FOLLOWING ORDERS AND DOING THEIR BEST TO STAY ALIVE IN THE COMBAT ZONES OF IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN WHILE THESE…*INDIVIDUALS* AT WICKILEAKS REMAIN ON THE LOOSE??! HUNH? ANSWER ME THAT.

HMMMM?

I.AM.SOOO.PISSED!

I am one heckuvan ANGRY AMERICAN right now, and this is but one of the reasons:

Pentagon Releases Letter Sent to Purported WikiLeaks Attorney

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Aug. 18, 2010 – Defense Department officials today released a letter the Pentagon’s top lawyer sent to a man purported to be an attorney for the WikiLeaks website, which published tens of thousands of classified documents last month and is threatening to release 15,000 more.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters this afternoon that Timothy J. Matusheski was a “no show” for a telephone call that was arranged last week when his name and purported status as a WikiLeaks attorney came up in an investigation of the document leak.

The following day, Whitman said, the Pentagon’s general counsel codified the Defense Department’s position in a letter and sent it to Matusheski.

Here is the text of the letter, dated Aug. 16 and signed by General Counsel Jeh C. Johnson. Words that were underlined in the original are presented here in all capital letters:

Dear Mr. Matusheski

I understand that you represent yourself to be an attorney for WikiLeaks and that you, on behalf of that organization, sought a conversation with someone in the United States Government to discuss “harm minimization” with respect to some 15,000 U.S. Government classified documents that WikiLeaks is holding and is threatening to make public. In response, I was prepared to speak with you yesterday at 10:00am EDT and convey the position of the Department of Defense. Despite your agreement to be available by telephone yesterday morning, we could not reach you at that time.

The position of the Department of Defense is clear, and it should be conveyed to your client in no uncertain terms:

WikiLeaks is holding the property of the U.S. Government, including classified documents and sensitive national security information that has not been authorized for release. Further, it is the view of the Department of Defense that WikiLeaks obtained this material in circumstances that constitute a violation of United States law, and that as long as WikiLeaks holds this material, the violation of the law is ongoing.

The Secretary of Defense has made clear the damage to our national security by the public release by WikiLeaks of some 76,000 classified documents several weeks ago, and the threat to the lives of coalition forces in Afghanistan and to the lives of local Afghan nationals as a result. As the Secretary has also stated, we know from various sources that our enemy is accessing the WikiLeaks website for the purpose of exploiting WikiLeaks’ illegal and irresponsible actions, to pursue their own terrorist aims.

The threatened release of additional classified documents by WikiLeaks will add to the damage. Among other sensitive items, we believe the classified documents contain, like the first batch of released documents, the names of Afghan nationals who are assisting coalition forces in our efforts to bring about peace and stability in that portion of the world.

Thus, the Department of Defense will NOT negotiate some “minimized” or “sanitized” version of a release by WikiLeaks of additional U.S. Government classified documents. The Department demands that NOTHING further be released by WikiLeaks, that ALL of the U.S. Government classified documents that WikiLeaks has obtained be returned immediately, and that WikiLeaks remove and destroy all of these records from its databases.

So, everyone…Read the sign…take it to heart…and to the streets…and to the L10 Freedom Ride at Leavenworth on Sept. 4, 2012. Never give up. Never give in. Help make America great again. Remove the thugs, traitors, thieves, liars and charlatons. [That means YOU, Congress].

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Apropos of the recent post on FDA perfidy, these came across my inbox today…take it FWIW–while there are those who eschew Alex Jones, he does reveal a few truths here and there, and from what I can tell, this is one of those which bear scrutiny.

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Well, well well, we didn’t have to wait long to see Big Parma run, screaming in terror to the FDA to protect them from the threat to their profit margin from the purveyors of simple solutions for healing! Jim Humble, whose long-researched, inexpensive, effective and revolutionary new approach to healing has worked for many years helping people to help their bodies do their jobs against all manner of invasive pathogens, and word has gotten around–much to the dismay of Big Pharma, whose endless attempts to foist harmful, expensive, and ineffective toxins upon the public are being thwarted by a public who now realizes that the alternatives to such dangerous products are vast, varied, less dangerous–as in NOT AT ALL–and more effective.

What a surprise–NOTTT! Once again, we the people, in exercising our god given right to the pursuit of happiness and freedom to believe what we choose, have scared the $h* t out of Big Pharma, who have in turn gone racing in terror to their shills at the FDA, paid their bribes/issued their ultimatums and forced the FDA to *DO SOMETHING!* about this effective, safe, cheap solution.

Do they give a red rat’s patoot about the uber toxicity of Aspartame, which functions far more effectively as a stain remover than a sweetener, and turns to the equivalent of anti freeze [propylene glycol] in your body? NO, THEY DO NOT!! The list of toxic, ineffective and dangerous chemicals the FDA allows corporations to shove upon an unsuspecting public is long, shameful and unending. It is our responsibility to do our own DD, seek healthy or at least NON harmful alternatives to the tons of poisonous, useless crap they foist upon us via main stream media advertising, and fend for ourselves, for never has “caveat emptor /” been more salient.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE! IGNORE THE GOONS AND CHARLATONS AT THE FDA, BIG PHARMA AND THE CORPORATOCRACY IN GENERAL!!

As usual–it is those who cry “RACIST! THIEF!” who are generally the culprits. And so it goes. For me–I’ll leave the real poison to the real culprits and avail myself of safe, effective, holistic and natural healing. It saves lives…AND money–especially with this new “health” care mess they’re trying to push on us.